CNN reports that while the NASA database comprises our solar system's eight planets and their moons, more than 755,000 asteroids, and 3,500 comets, it now also includes one cherry red sports car that belonged to a Silicon Valley billionaire. 

Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, put on a stunning show Tuesday with the inaugural launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, which became the most powerful operational rocket in the world. 

It was a demo mission and test flights typically have a dummy payload, such as a big hunk of metal, so that nothing important or expensive is damaged if the rocket blows up. 

But Musk decided to offer up his personal Tesla roadster. The Falcon Heavy launch was nearly perfect, and the roadster is headed for orbit around the sun. Its path will take it as far away as Mars, and, later, as close to the sun as the Earth. 

In the words of Musk, the Tesla was meant to be a silly stunt for SpaceX - but for NASA, the car is an object in our solar system that must be catalogued and tracked.

SpaceX also hid a few "Easter eggs" in the car.

"You might also catch a glimpse of a smaller passenger, which is a tiny little Hot Wheels roadster, carrying a tiny little Starman," Lauren Lyons, a SpaceX engineer, said during the mission's webcast.

Also on board the Tesla is a durable storage device, called an Arch, loaded with the text of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" sci-fi trilogy. 

The names of over 6,000 SpaceX employees are also etched onto some hardware below the car.

CNN